From Huffington Post
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced a new campaign to "Stop Colbert" on Thursday, in an effort to pass super PAC transparency legislation -- and perhaps get revenge on behalf of her "friend, Newt Gingrich."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced a new campaign to "Stop Colbert" on Thursday, in an effort to pass super PAC transparency legislation -- and perhaps get revenge on behalf of her "friend, Newt Gingrich."
"Stephen Colbert used to be my friend. I even signed the poor baby's cast when he hurt his hand," Pelosi deadpans. "But since the day he started his super PAC, taking secret money from special interests, he's been out of control, even using his super PAC to attack my friend, Newt Gingrich. And if that weren't enough, I hear he doesn't even like kittens."
Pelosi then makes her case for the DISCLOSE Act, a bill meant to increase transparency in election spending that Democrats have been pushing, and, according to the YouTube video's description, plan on reintroducing on Thursday.
"Join me in stopping Colbert and creating a new politics free of special interest money. The first step is passing the DISCLOSE Act," she says, directing viewers to a Facebook website.
While Pelosi's pitch is satirical -- Colbert's super PAC shenanigans are a tongue-in-cheek critique of the negative effects of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and Pelosi hasn't done much to reinforce her claim that Gingrich is, in fact, her "friend" -- she is serious about the legislation.
House Democrats have been campaigning on behalf of the DISCLOSE Act for months, and in January rewrote the legislation in anticipation of a new attempt to build support for it. Sam Steinreported on the updates last month:
The bill has been redesigned to account for the rise of super PACs and to make more transparent what is widely regarded as a dangerous proliferation of largely anonymous spending during the 2012 election cycle. According to ProPublica, super PACs have so far spent nearly $20 million on campaign activities in the first four presidential primary states alone. That total does not take into account the money spent that super PACs neglected to report.
That $20 million figure has grown significantly since the story, check out ProPublica for an up-to-date tally.
